Diary of a newfound groundhopper

Horsham YMCA 2 Langney Wanderers 1, SCFL Premier Division, Saturday 27 th April 2019 And so, after 48 games watched and 173 goals seen, my inaugural season as a groundhopper ends as it started. With a single goal victory for Horsham YMCA. On a baking hot afternoon back in August, I witnessed YMCAbeat a plucky Uckfield side 4-3 in a real opening day thriller. It’s hard to believe that nearly nine months have passed since that goal-filled afternoon and, even as I type this, I’m already wondering how I’ll be filling my Saturday afternoons for the next few months. No doubt my wife will have it all planned out. Can’t wait! In a way, having visited 46 different grounds in a row, it’s a shame that my last two visits of the season were to grounds I had already visited during the past nine months. However, while my reasons for revisiting Eastbourne United’s The Oval on Easter Monday were explained in my previous blog post, my real reasons for returning to Horsham YMCA’s G...

Eastbourne United 1 Eastbourne Town 3, SCFL Premier Division, Monday 22nd April 2019 Confession time. While my visit to Pagham’s Nyetimber Lane ground on Saturday did indeed mean that I've now visited every ground in the SCFL Premier division this season, there was a slight caveat to this achievement (if that’s what it can be called). You see, two (well, not that's not right, one... let's call it one and a half) of those visits were not to watch teams in the league. Let me explain. Back in October I visited Priory Lane to watch the tenants, National South side Eastbourne Borough, take on Dulwich Hamlet in an FA Cup qualifier. Ground ticked off. However, Priory Lane is also home to Langney Wanderers, so while I have indeed visited their ground, I haven't actually seen them play at home. Likewise, I visited Eastbourne United's The Oval in November. But not to watch United. Instead it was their lodgers (and league rivals) Little Commo...

Pagham 0 East Preston 4, SCFL Premier Division, Saturday 20 th April 2019 It’s done! Yesterday’s visit to Pagham marked a trip to the only remaining SCFL Premier division ground that I’d yet to visit this season. Set complete. Much like my visit to Chichester earlier in the campaign, my visit to Pagham’s Nyetimber Lane ground is one that I’d been putting off. Again, it’s nothing personal. However, my usual Saturday morning coaching commitments mean that reaching the small village, which is located on the coast between Bognor Regis and Chichester, in time for kick-off is a remote possibility. Especially when you factor in the traffic delights of the A27! But with 5Ways Soccer School taking a break for the Easter holidays, I was afforded a rare totally free Saturday. And Pagham were due to be at home against East Preston. This was my perfect opportunity to complete the set. Or was it. There was one slightly nervy moment when, a couple of weeks ago, a friend...

Burgess Hill Town 1 Brightlingsea Regent 1, Bostik Premier League, Saturday 13 th April 2019 It may have taken the best part of eight months, and almost the entire duration of my inaugural groundhopping season but, 44 games into my journey, I have finally become organised. After spending months not knowing where I’d be from one week to the next, I entered April having all of my upcoming fixtures already mapped out for me. I’d even written them down on a scrap of paper and pinned it to a cork board in my office. Height of efficiency! What’s more, I’d had this week’s game – Burgess Hill vs Brightlingsea Regent in the Bostik Premier League – pencilled into my (hypothetical) diary for weeks. Having noticed a fair while ago that there were no matches scheduled in the SCFL Premier for this particular weekend, I immediately checked to see whether the Hillians (the only Sussex-based Bostik Premier League team whose ground I’d yet to visit this season) were due to be at home....

Arundel 1 Newhaven 3, SCFL Premier Division, Saturday 6 th April 2019 And so I enter the final month of my inaugural groundhopping season. Over the next few weeks, championships will be decided in leagues up and down the country, promotion places will be won, play-off places secured while numerous teams will heartbreakingly tumble through the relegation trapdoor into the depths of the division below. And by the time the curtain comes down on the 2018/19 campaign, I will have finally succeeded in mu self-imposed mission of visiting the grounds of every SCFL Premier team this season. This weekend, I took a big step towards achieving that goal by finally paying a visit to Arundel’s Mill Road Ground. I say finally as it is the third time I have attempted to watch a game there this season. In early February my plans to go and watch Arundel and Pagham were ruined by snow (I settled for a trip to Seaford instead), while a couple of weeks ago my intended trip to se...